What is Back the Name

WHAT IS BACK OF THE NAME

THERE has never been a more intense battle over the Deity of the Man of Galilee than is being waged today. The great Body of the Church does not see as they
never have seen the issue squarely; neither have they realized the result of this struggle.

Unfortunately, we have arrayed against the Deity of Christ a body of semi-intellectuals.
There is scarcely a half dozen who belong to the first rank, either of scholastic or intellectual strength, that have been engaged on either side.

The debates that have been staged in different parts of the country have savoured more of the barn-storming tactics of the modern political demagogue than of cold-blooded intellectual investigation into the merits of the issue.

The Deity of the Man of Galilee is the crux of Christianity. If this can be successfully challenged, then Christianity has lost its heart and it will cease to function; it will become a dead religion.

There is no denying that the challenge of His Deity has already begun its reactionary effect upon society. If Jesus is not Deity, He is not Lord. If He is not Lord, then He cannot interfere with our moral activities.

If He is not Lord, then the laws that have been founded upon His teachings have lost their force. The morals that surround marriage with its lofty ideals have no basis in fact.
If Jesus of Nazareth is not a revelation from God with divine authority, then He is but a man.

If He is but a man, all that we have built around Him must be destroyed, and we have built around this Man our modern civilization. He has been the inspiration of young men: they have kept themselves clean and pure as they have looked upon His wonder-life and sought to win His smile.

Young women in the secret of their chamber have looked upon the face of the Man of Galilee and have pledged to preserve the purity of their womanhood that they might be worthy of the love and confidence of the Man Who died two thousand years ago for humanity.

Children have been incited to obedience and purity by the example and teachings of that Man. Businessmen have been deterred from crooked dealings by the consciousness that one day they would meet that Man and give an account of the deeds done in their office.
Men of all walks of life have felt a strange kinship with this Man Who walked the shores of Galilee, solitary among a multitude. To say He was but a good man is an insult.

To say that He was the highest expression of Deity in humanity is to throw the lie into His face. Jesus is or He is not what He said He was. We have no record of His sayings nor of His doings outside the four Gospels, and if we repudiate them, then we have
but a mythical picture of the Man.

If we challenge one of them, we have a right to challenge all of them: either He stands or falls on those four biographical sketches. If He is not the Son of God, who is He?
I want to believe that He is an Incarnation. I want to believe that He dealt with the sin problem. I want to believe that He died for my sins and that He rose again for my justification.

I want to believe that He is seated at God’s right-hand today as the Intercessor and Mediator of the human race. I want to believe that what He said about heaven is true “In my Father’s house are many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself.” Skepticism holds no guarantee for my future.

Civilization has not only been builded around this Man, but He has been builded into civilization. If you destroy His character, His standing, and His place, then civilization must disintegrate.

The wave of crime and lawlessness that is sweeping over the land is but a by-product of the modernists’ challenge of His integrity.